


Grit

by AntleredTitan



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-08
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:33:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1578641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntleredTitan/pseuds/AntleredTitan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin and Levi are trapped in a cafeteria after searching in an abandoned school for supplies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sugarmilk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarmilk/gifts).



> Just a quick one shot. I've been dying to write a zombie au. Many thanks to sugarmilk for pushing me into it.

Was it the rhythm of his heart frantically beating in his ears or the chorus of scrapes and moans from the other side of the cafeteria door that was breaking Levi's composure? He felt a bead of sweat race down the bridge of his nose, only to hang dangerously off the tip. The tickle irritated him but he didn't have time to wipe it away- Erwin was bleeding out in front of him.

Christ, Erwin's blood was everywhere.

Everything was wet and slippery. The tile floor Erwin laid on was channeling his blood through the dips in the grout, creating some sick sort of webbed design. 

Levi couldn't get a firm grasp on the strips of cloth he'd torn from his own shirt. They were saturated with Erwin's dark blood, refusing to hold a knot around the stump of what used to be his arm. Levi tried his best to not mix the cloth with the ribbons of flesh and shredded muscle, but sometimes found himself accidentally tugging on strands of tissue. It was difficult to tell in the dim room. He watched as the bead of sweat dripped from his nose. It dropped right into a pool of red, swirling as the water and blood fought for space. As quick as it had dropped, the red overpowered the clear and the surface settled smoothly as if it had never been disturbed. Levi blinked and focused again on his task: stop the bleeding. He tightened the knots around the stub with unsteady hands. Goddammit, Erwin. Why had he cut the whole thing off?  He'd been bitten on his forearm, if he'd waited they could have saved most of his arm-

"You fucking idiot." Levi hissed through his teeth. His fingers were starting to tremble now, making the knot tying _even more_ difficult. 

"Saved us... Didn't it?" Erwin's voice was struggling to sound like that of a strong confident leader right now. It was shaky, breathless... scared. 

"Did it?" The hoard that had been about to devour them paused momentarily to fight over the arm Levi's partner had so crudely hacked away. They'd managed to escape- or they thought, until they ran into this dead end cafeteria of some primary school they had been scouting out. Levi had managed to tip an old snack machine over to barricade the doors, but by the sounds of metal scraping tile it wasn't going to last long. Levi sat back and with drenched hands pulled what was left of his t-shirt over his head, leaving him in just a stained undershirt. The cotton stuck to his palms as he molded it carefully to cover the open wound and wrapped it up near Erwin's shoulder. He looked around for something to secure it on with and settled for his belt. As a second thought he also ripped Erwin's out of his belt loops and tightened both leather straps; one around Erwin's shoulder, looping around his armpit to hold the ends of his makeshift wrap in place, and the second a few inches above the worst of the tearing on his arm to stop the blood flow. The forest green cotton was already dark and damp by the time Levi was finished tightening the last belt.

"It saved you." Erwin's left hand, pale and coarse and cold, wrapped around Levi's bloodied fingers. He tried to hold tight, Levi could feel him straining to grip his fingers, but he was weak. Levi searched for the courage that was always swimming in Erwin's blue eyes and drowned himself in it. They were getting out of here alive. They had to.  

"Don't you dare, old man." His fingers left smears of red as he gripped Erwin's hand back. "Don't you dare act like we're not getting out of this together." 

A smile pulled at the corner of his lips. 

"I can't refuse an order from my captain." 

"Hell no. Now sit up." Levi leaned over Erwin and tucked his arms under his armpits and pulled the big blond forward. Erwin groaned clutching his arm just between the two belts. He panted slightly and leaned to look over Levi's shoulder towards the door. The banging was echoing around the room now, matching up to the horrified beating of Levi's heart. He gripped onto Erwin's shoulders tightly, helping support him while his commander took survey of their situation. 

"How many do you think there were?" 

"Sixty, maybe more."

"When's the last time we had contact with the team?" 

"My squad was lost the second they opened that infested gym door. Hange's squad should be circling the area outside, but there's only one tiny window. I can't signal them through that." Levi nodded towards the back of the cafeteria, where a small storm window was allowing the tiniest amount of natural light into the room.  He wasn't even sure he could reach it- there were a few dusty lunch tables folded into V shapes that he could try and push towards the wall, but with the banging on the other side of the doors, Levi didn't think they had time. 

"We'll have to climb through it. We'll have to try."

"Are you crazy? I think _I_ would barely fit through that myself, how are _you_ going to squeeze through?"

"Where's your faith in me?"

Levi paused, his hands clenching Erwin's shoulders tighter. Erwin was brilliant. Erwin was cunning. Erwin was always able to pull them out of sticky situations- why was now so different? Because he'd lost his arm? Levi had decided long ago that Erwin was the only man worthy of complete trust, who was he to back out on that now?

"Alright."

"How much ammo do we have left?" 

With one hand Levi followed the trail of straps wrapped around his body, feeling each gun in its holster and each pocket. 

"I've got two guns left that are full, a few clips in my back pocket... We lost your machete, thanks to your little stunt. I've still got the kukri." His hand grasped the handle of the blade that was strapped to his back. Levi jumped around as one of the doors burst off the hinges. A few biters fell forward on each other over the vending machine, clogging up the narrow entrance. Rotten limbs reached forward, open mouths begging for the two living humans trapped right in front of them.

Levi scrambled to stand and hoisted Erwin up onto his feet. They almost slipped backwards on the blood Erwin left behind, but Levi caught his comrade quickly to steady him, stepping on his ankle wrong in the process. He hissed as he heard the bone crack under his and Erwin's weight. The hungry moans that were quickly filling the cafeteria made Levi decide to ignore the pain and continue on. Staggering slightly he half-pulled, half-lead Erwin to the back of the room to stand right below the tiny window. 

"I can pull a table, we can stand on that." He pulled one of his handguns out of its holster and pushed it into Erwin's remaining hand.   
"Still think you can shoot?" 

"Absolutely." 

Levi limped swiftly to the wall to the right of the window and busied himself with one of the nearby folded tables, struggling to pull the rusted wheels forward. They screeched as Levi tugged, trying desperately to get it under their only way of escaping. He tried his best to tune out the shots of Erwin's handgun, tried his best to ignore the sounds of rotten flesh splattering against the floor as a result. Sweat was beginning to build up near his hairline. The stench from the biters wafted under his nose, making him grimace in disgust. He cursed under his breath a few times as the tabletop slipped out of his clammy grasp. He clenched his teeth and focused on the tension in his jaw rather than the pain throbbing up his leg. Finally he made it under the window. Erwin was supporting himself against the wall, sweat trickling down his pale face. Despite his arm quivering, Erwin still had impeccable aim. On what was left of his other arm the cloth was dripping- that wasn't good. 

The door was open pretty far now, but with a few 'dead,' ones and the slanted door leaning over the big rectangular machine it made for a difficult obstacle for the biters to climb over. Levi focused on unlocking the folded table and pushing it flat so they were able to stand on it. It refused to budge at first, but Erwin managed to push down on it with enough force to get it to set up correctly. Levi quickly jumped onto the surface and grabbed Erwin's arm, heaving him up. He was slick with sweat and shaking, giving away just how poorly he was really doing under the serious mask he wore on his face. Once Erwin was standing on the table leaning against the wall, Levi set to work on the dusty window. There was a cheap plastic crank attached that snapped when Levi tried to force it to turn. He slammed his fists against the glass, keeping in rhythm with Erwin's gunshots. 

"It won't-" _bang!_  "fucking-" _bang!_  " _open_!" _bang!_

There was a clatter and a jerk on Levi's pant leg as Erwin threw his now empty handgun down and pulled the other out of its holster. He pointed it at the glass, letting one round shatter the small window. Levi had just enough time to cover his eyes, but that left his ears ringing painfully after. 

"Go!" Erwin yelled, turning back towards the door to shoot off a couple more rounds. Levi tore the kukri off his back and used the blade to knock away any of the remaining glass shards. He set it on the sill and lifted himself up- there was just enough room that his head, and maybe his shoulders if he tried, could poke out into the muggy autumn air. He didn't have time to wait for his eyes to adjust to the sudden sunlight- he took in as big of a breath  as he could, waiting for the echo of Erwin's latest shot to dissipate before he started yelling. 

"HANGE!" He felt a tug on his pant leg but continued, "HANGE! GET YOUR SHITTY GLASSES OVER HERE." 

There was another tug on his leg, this one more urgent than the first that made him lose his balance and he fell- face scraping up against the shards on the window sill and one piece slicing a deep gash from his brow to his forehead. The kukri blade fell before Levi did, and he landed right on it, thankfully only carving a thin line under his right arm. 

"Levi!" 

While he blinked the blood away that was pooling over his eye he noticed his leg was still being pulled- his whole body was- Levi was being pulled straight off the table-

"LEVI!" Erwin's hand gripped around Levi's right bicep- Levi cried out as Erwin's fingers dug into the gash- playing a nasty game of tug-of-war with an ancient looking biter. Judging by it's hideous matted pantsuit and a grimy pearl necklace still clasped to its moldy neck, he guessed it had probably been a teacher. Levi gripped onto Erwin and started kicking, hitting the biter right in its ugly exposed jawbone that was trying to chomp through his boot. The friction from him being tugged off the table and then jerking to kick pulled his pant leg up out of his boot, exposing a small amount of bruised skin. Pain bolted up his leg, paralyzing him for a moment and he thought he'd definitely broken that ankle now. He reached for the kukri handle with his free hand, turning away for only a second- 

He thought maybe Erwin accidentally shot him through the calf. 

But he hadn't heard a gunshot- only the sound of Erwin yelling.

Or maybe that was his own voice. 

Fire lit up along the meatiest part of Levi's leg and he slashed downward with the kukri, trying to put out the source of the pain. The blade slid right between the dried out eyes of the biter, and as he jammed the metal back into its skull farther, its bloody maw went slack and it released the chunk of Levi's leg it had been tearing through. Blood began to pour out as the fire rushed in- right up Levi's leg, to his groin, into his chest- the fire, oh god no-

the _infection_. 

Erwin won the battle over Levi's body and he fell against him as he yanked him backwards. Levi clutched his leg, screaming through his teeth as the fire grew worse. He had to get rid of it- this couldn't happen to him, they were supposed to get out of here alive!

He grabbed the kukri again and held the blade above the bite wound. He could do this. Erwin did it for them. Levi could do it for them, too. 

Erwin grabbed his hand softly, uncurling his fingers from the blade. It dropped almost silently onto the table top, the noise of its impact swallowed by the orchestra of moans creeping closer to the table. Ten of them had made it through. Or was it twenty? It didn't matter. They were approaching and Levi couldn't move. His chest hurt, like someone was punching from the inside out trying to snap his ribs. He couldn't breathe. They were getting closer- some crawling, some stumbling, some shuffling. It was all too fast. If he could just grab the blade again-

And do what?

There were too many. 

His fingers groped at the empty air, unsure of what to do. Was it over? The grey decomposing eyes of a biter pulling itself up onto the table with brittle fingers told him it was. It was over. 

His fingers wrapped around the grip of his gun that was forced into his hand. He turned to Erwin, losing himself again in the fierce courage of his partner's eyes. With his one hand his commander pulled the last clip out of Levi's pocket and reloaded the second gun he'd dropped earlier. Like everything Erwin did, it was flawless. Only one hand and the bastard was still just as perfect as he had been with two. He sagged tiredly against the wall and leaned to the side, pressing his damp forehead against Levi's. Those strikingly bright blue irises that Levi adored gazing into at night when neither of them could sleep were calm. They were confident as Erwin's steady hand put the barrel of the gun up to his lips, just as they were when he was giving the camp orders only this morning. Levi felt reassured by their serenity as he copied Erwin's movements, feeling the hot metal rest against his mouth. He drowned himself again in that sea of blue, letting the waves wash away his fear, letting it dull the fire in his leg. He locked himself in Erwin's gaze, ignoring the swarm climbing through the door, howling ravenously and fighting over each other to get to the table first. He tuned out the sounds of the closer ones flailing against the table top, rocking it on its wheels, reaching hungrily for the two men huddled together on top of it.

He clasped onto Erwin's shoulder, fingers digging into his flesh, blinking through the hot blood trickling into his eye. Nothing would keep him from looking at Erwin Smith.

"Together, right?" Erwin breathed. The barrel slid perfectly between his teeth.

"Together." 

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie I was listening to the 28 Days Later soundtrack while writing this.  
> I didn't want them to die, not really, but... oops.  
> Thanks again to Sugarmilk, who very soon will be writing a collab eruri fic with me, which will have a much much happier ending than this did.  
> I know I should be updating my other fic but I REALLY wanted to write this.  
> Thanks for reading. ;w;


End file.
